No national interest in extracting shale gas

The Star's front page headline on February 3, was 'Fracking fury set to explode' (February 7).
Anti-Fracking feature, Marsh Lane, Eckington...30th January 2018 ..Picture by Simon HulmeAnti-Fracking feature, Marsh Lane, Eckington...30th January 2018 ..Picture by Simon Hulme
Anti-Fracking feature, Marsh Lane, Eckington...30th January 2018 ..Picture by Simon Hulme

Local people are entitled to be angry but a better reaction would be for us to gain a better collective understanding of what is going on in the way that shale gas projects are handled in the planning system. Changes can then be demanded, based on sound knowledge.

Your headline refers to how decisions on plans for exploratory gas wells at Harthill and Marsh Lane have been taken out of the hands of local authorities and referred to a government planning inspector.

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That the system allows this so early on casts doubt on the Government’s professed commitment to local democracy.

Yet there is a much more fundamental problem with the system. Whoever makes the decision has to place great emphasis on a Government statement declaring a “national need” for shale gas.

Campaign groups and the Government’s own independent advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, have all warned that it is unlikely that emissions from a fully developed shale gas industry could be accommodated within the UK’s legally binding emissions targets, or “carbon budgets”.

Further, international agreements between most nations mean that around three-quarters of all fossil fuel reserves need to be left in the ground.

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Climate change feeds the increasingly severe extreme weather events that are now happening around the world.

It threatens to massively disrupt both our environment and economy over the coming decades.

Banning the industrialisation of our countryside with shale gas wells could be one of the most straightforward steps the Government could take to help meet its moral and legal obligations to address climate change.

Chris Broome

On behalf of Sheffield Climate Alliance